Raghu Dixit's desi beats

And going by his recent itinerary, he seems keen on making his genre a global one. Raghu has been busy shuttling between UK and India since April. In the meantime, he has performed for the Queen of England and is collaborating with European musicians. While speaking to CS, the self-taught Mysore born musician reveals that he tries keep his music simple.

Who: Raghu Dixit What: Talking about his music being rooted in India, and his musical collaborations

Love for his roots I am proud of our culture and heritage, and everything that makes us Indian. I realised quite early in my career that as Indians, we have such a rich and diverse culture, and it would be foolish for me not to explore that. That’s when I started reading up about ancient poetry, and was drawn to Santha Shishunala Sharif ( a saint- poet, philosopher and social reformer from Karnataka), whose style and quirkiness appealed to me. I can’t comment for anyone but myself here, and I just make music that comes naturally to me.

Joining hands Collaborations are a very natural way to make music. I’ve realised that with music, irrespective of your genre and your language or even your instrument, you will always find a musical middle ground and after the collaboration, everyone involved is enriched by the experience. For instance, I am doing a musical that also has some great international artists in it. The members of Bellowhead with whom we are sharing the music responsibilities are fantastic, and we always have a blast making music together.

Performing for the Queen It was a real honour. I was invited to represent Asia and I sang my most popular song ‘Mysore Se Ayi’. We performed our hearts out and did an excellent job. The Queen watched us perform from the Royal Box, and after the performance I was invited yet again to have tea with her! She thanked us for coming all the way from India to perform for her. It was a wonderful experience overall.

Digital future I think it’s the future of communication. I am a social media junkie myself and I make it a point to talk to people who write to me. I strongly believe that at the end of the day, you might call it a lot of fancy names, but it is a real person sitting at the other end reading or listening or watching.